Machine for making electrical transmission lines



April 24, 1 6 J. v. FISHER 2,742,950

MACHINE FOR MAKING ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION LINES Filed July 31, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR.

o g 1 g Joszs/w M FISHER April 24, 1956 J. v. FISHER 2,742,950

MACHINE FOR MAKING ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION LINES Filed July 31, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR. JOSEPH l FISHER. MW

United States Patent MACHINE FOR MAKING ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION LINES Joseph V. Fisher, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Application July 31, 1953, Serial No. 371,579 1 Claim. (Cl. 1542.24)

This invention relates to the assembling of conductor wires and insulators in unitary relation, the conductors being particularly suitable for connecting the antenna to a transmitter or a receiver, these devices being commonly designated as open-wire transmission and receiving lines. The present application comprises a modification of the structure of my application Serial No. 247,064, filed September 18, 1951.

The object of my invention is to provide apparatus for assembling conductor wires with insulators of a different shape than the insulator bars of my previous application, particular reference being here made to the manner in which insulators of disc-like form can be fed accurately and rapidly to a drum whereon they are assembled into unitary relation with conductor wires.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of a machine embodying my invention, the feeding apparatus therefore however being shown somewhat schematically;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged side view of a portion of the discfeeding device of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a still further enlarged end view of the feeding guide of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary edge view of the carrier drum of Fig. 1, on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary side view thereof;

Figs. 6 and 7 are enlarged sectional views of the drum, taken on the lines VIVI and VII-VII of Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged sectional view of the guide pulley of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 9 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of a completely assembled open-wire conductor and its insulators.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 9, the assembled elements or product of the machine comprises the conductor wires 12 imbedded in thermoplastic discs or lozenge-shaped insulators 13. The discs 13 are fedfrom a hopper or similar feeding device 14 that supplies the discs into a chute 15 and past a guide block 16 which is adjustable by screws 17 and 18 to align the discs 13 for proper engagement by pockets 19 in the rim 20 of a drum 21.

The weight of the column of discs in the chute 15 will force the foremost disc 13 into engagement with the inclined side wall of a pocket 19 during rotation of the drum 21, there being a disc thus positioned each time a pocket comes opposite to the discharge end of the feeder.

The conductor wires 12 are fed or drawn from spools 23 and 24, over guide pulleys 25 and 26 and past an adjustable friction device and guide 27. Thence the wires move through a heating chamber 28 and into grooves 29 in the drum rim 20. The discs which are of thermoplastic material are carried into position beneath the heated wires and are thereby softened, so that the Wires become imbedded therein at a depth determined by the depths of the grooves. The softened material will sag somewhat across the outer sides of the wires, to firmly hold them in position when the insulators have become cooled.

In order to permit of rapid operation of the device, a cooling jet 31 is provided to harden the softened areas of the discs. Winding drums 32 and 33 are provided,

driven by suitable motors, for coiling and storing the I assembled conductors. A stripper bar 34 edged at its inner end projects into a groove 34a in the drum rim, so as to push the insulators out of the pockets, and guide drums or pulleys 35 and 36 direct the assembled conductor to the take-upreeIs 32 and 33.

I claim as my invention:

Apparatus for assembling electrical conductors, comprising a rotatable drum having pockets in its periphery that are outwardly exposed in radial and axial directions, means comprising a chute at a feeding station, for directing a row of thermoplastic circular insulator discs edgewise against the pocketed radial face of the drum, in a plane generally tangential to the peripheral surface of the drum, and one-by-one into successive pockets during rotation of the drum, means for applying wires' in partly wrapped engagement with the drum and across the insulators, after the insulators have passed the feeding station, the pockets having seating areas for the insulators, whose side walls are of generally arcuate form and each extending from the adjacent radial face of the drum toward the other face thereof, the pocket side-wall then extending in a sloping direction toward the first-named face of the drum, there being a continuous circumferential groove in the periphery of the drum positioned radially inward from the pockets, and a stripper bar extending into said groove, for pushing the insulators out of the pockets at a discharge station.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER REFERENCES T. V. Lead-In-Spacers, Modern Plastics, October 1951, page 182. 

